Howick Office Supplies

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Job Description

Overview

Howick Office Supplies was purchased from the previous owner in 2013, and came with an aging inventory, an unknown stock value, a Palaeolithic point of sale and some dedicated staff. Having just purchased the business we weren't able to tell which products moved and which ones didn't. This made it difficult to make purchasing, promotional and staffing decisions. We worked with our accountant and identified that we really needed to do something differently to avoid the same mistakes as the prior owner.

Really, the questions started with business information - which questions did we need answering about the business to make important decisions? Particularly, purchasing is critical to retail where you live and die by your daily sales values and volumes, and it's so vital to make sure you have the right stock in store so that products are available when customers want them. Plus, we need to hold the right quantities of stock to ensure we don't have cash tied up in excess inventory, so it's important to monitor inventory movements closely to ensure the items we are purchasing are selling.

Solution

After our initial meeting, Link Solutions recommended Vend to replace our existing Point of Sale, and that this be connected to our Xero accounting system. This way we would have all of the business information we need to make critical decisions. We used Vend's re-order point and re-stock functions to automate the ordering of products from suppliers. This has reduced the amount of administration and errors involved in ordering and also allowed us close control over re-order levels and re-stock amounts. Because ordering is easier, we can order more frequently, and hold the right amount of the right stock.
Having Vend and Xero integrated has halved the amount of accounts administration involved in invoicing clients and reconciling payments, plus Vend’s Dashboard gives us the insight we need to ensure we're selling the right product at the right price. We can monitor which products are moving and which customers are buying.

Result

When I first met with Link Solutions, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to go on a Mediterranean cruise in a few months with my wife. There were just too many issues.

Beyond the benefits noted above, I can now relax, knowing that Vend has made the store function so much more smoothly - I'll be able to sit back and use the on-board Wi-Fi to check daily sales, monitor our cash position, see who’s paying (and who isn't), and authorise purchases.

Link Solutions

I found Reuben and Link Solutions to be patient and dedicated to achieving what they said they would. They know their product very well and were able to communicate that to me and my staff in a way we understood. Their training delivery was flexible and attentive to the ways my staff learn.